LOCAL ELECTIONS: What the results mean (From Swindon Advertiser)
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LOCAL ELECTIONS: What the results mean in Swindon
7:24am Friday 6th May 2011 in Election 2011 News By Adam Kula
LOCAL ELECTIONS: What the results mean
SURVEYING the aftermath of the results of this year's election, the obvious winner in Swindon is Labour.
The number of 'red' wards in the town is beginning to creep up again, posing a newly-revived challenge to the Tory's dominance.
Of the 20 seats up for grabs at last night's election count, the party snatched two from the Tories, but there were also some very close shaves.
Labour came surprisingly near to taking some other wards which weren't even seen as 'wobbly' seats.
The Lib Dems were forced to defend their homebase of Eastcott against a serious Labour threat, and elsewhere the party came within a whisker of stealing the solidly Tory West Swindon ward of Freshbrook and Grange Park, as well as a seat in Dorcan - Conservative leader Rod Bluh's ward.
The biggest losers of the night were Conservative cabinet member Peter Mallinson, who lost his Walcot seat to Labour newcomer Ellen Osa and St Philip's Conservative Paul Findlow, who was unseated by Labour's Joe Tray.
And Labour leader Derique Montaut has vowed to take the fight to the Conservatives again next May.
But Coun Bluh deflected criticism, saying that local parties were always going to take the flak for unpopular policies of their national leadership.
How the council looks following the election CONSERVATIVE - 38 seats (-2)
LABOUR - 17 seats (+2)
LIB DEM - 4 seats
Comments(49)
Terence
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8:39am Fri 6 May 11
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What about Swindon's favourite sermonizing landlord, anyone know how he did? - How did you do Bob?
Hmmmf
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8:39am Fri 6 May 11
Tim Newroman
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8:49am Fri 6 May 11
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Given that the Tories are in government nationally, during a time of severe economic hardship, it would have been expected to see the local Tories suffer far greater losses than they did. Indeed, for them to have only lost two seats must be viewed by them as nothing short of 'crack the Champagne' time.
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Looking directly at the cold numbers, a Labour gain of 2 could be considered a win... but against the wider backdrop, it'll be the Tories who are celebrating a highly unexpected success this morning.
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Although Montaut will spin this as a Labour victory, questions must surely be asked about his continued leadership of the local Labour group if this is the best he can manage during a time when the party should really have taken at least another 2 to 3 seats. That Jenny Millin lost votes in Moredon and Steve Wakefield only just managed to beat a very young and inexperienced Tory must have Labour alarm bells ringing.
Home Boy
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9:26am Fri 6 May 11
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Would be interested to see how the sharing out of seats compares to the overall share of the vote. Anyone have the figures for the whole of Swindon?
PaulD
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9:32am Fri 6 May 11
Terence wrote:http://www.swindonad
Quite right PeeGee, only a very skewed reading could bring the conclusion that Labour was the 'obvious winner'. They may have done better than last time around but surely the obvious winner of an election is the party which receives the most votes.
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What about Swindon's favourite sermonizing landlord, anyone know how he did? - How did you do Bob?
vertiser.co.uk/local
_elections_2011/ward
/160/2452/
swindon_mini
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10:27am Fri 6 May 11
If this had been an all out then in Theory Labour would have taken 9 seats last night!
molly60
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10:52am Fri 6 May 11
Robfm
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11:11am Fri 6 May 11
vertiser.co.uk/local
_elections_2011/
Swindon the official result is 2 seats.
Gooey
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11:12am Fri 6 May 11
molly60
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11:19am Fri 6 May 11
Gooey wrote:BaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBa--
Labour have made significant vote gains in Swindon. They ran the tories close in many wards. Next year they will batter them once the cuts really start to bite
--Yawn..............
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Robfm
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11:21am Fri 6 May 11
Gooey
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11:30am Fri 6 May 11
molly60 wrote:Tory i guess?
Gooey wrote: Labour have made significant vote gains in Swindon. They ran the tories close in many wards. Next year they will batter them once the cuts really start to biteBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBa-- --Yawn.............. .................... .................... .................... .................... ...........
Oh well,the stats speak for themselves. The gap is closing
PeeGee
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12:20pm Fri 6 May 11
The Real Librarian
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12:28pm Fri 6 May 11
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Is this the same Derek Montaut that just quit as Labour Group leader?
PeeGee
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12:38pm Fri 6 May 11
However, the Tories didn't have to worry too much last night as Tory voters got what they wanted in the form of swingeing cuts. As the results come in from across the country it appears that the Tory vote is holding up quite well for an incumbant Governmment. I cannot see that changing in the next 12 months as the electorate are getting what they voted for. Long term they probably will get fed up and look for an alternative. But that's none too soon.
Labour need to be more worried as they need to maintain an image of a credible opposition. As for the LIbDems, well, they're just dead in the water.
Of course it could just come down to local matters and the service given by individual councillors. But it won't. So more of the same next year - close but no cigar for Labour.
itsamess
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12:40pm Fri 6 May 11
Gooey--labour did do well. However locally they presided over the the fiasco of the Brunel Centre sale and even asked us what to spend it on.
None of that money was ever spent on Swindon--the vast majority paid off WCC pension funds which were over 40 millions. All the **** ups the tories have made locally do not even come close to that figure. There are good and bad councillors and others passed their sell by date. We do need
fresh faces--fresh ideas.
Robfm
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1:32pm Fri 6 May 11
Then it is simply up to the voter.
Captain Sensible
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3:36pm Fri 6 May 11
Tim Newroman
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3:38pm Fri 6 May 11
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They should have romped home with at least 2 or 3 additional seats. The simple fact is, they didn't.
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It seems the people of Swindon aren't buying Labour's lies and are holding them, rightly, accountable for the current economic mess the country finds itself in.
Scrumping
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5:09pm Fri 6 May 11
Da Mellon
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5:56pm Fri 6 May 11
ents and seriously bad ideas for campaigning.
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if you need an example of one very bad mistake, please let me know
itsamess
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6:13pm Fri 6 May 11
Da Mellon
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6:17pm Fri 6 May 11
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if you feel you are well experienced Mr Martinez and have an experienced team, then how is it you only acquired 200 votes? if you put some real effort into it you could have booted Gary Perkins out the door
molly60
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6:19pm Fri 6 May 11
body know whats happening with the AV vote ? Oh dear never mind................
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Da Mellon
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6:22pm Fri 6 May 11
69%=no
31%=yes
Robfm
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6:25pm Fri 6 May 11
As for Walters claims about me damaging the party image, I would just point out that UKIP Swindon has had far more media coverage in these elections than any other UKIP area. All generated by me.
Go back to being a pretend scientist Walter, and by the way it's the 6th, I thought your alter-ego was supposed to have had me arrested today.
Robfm
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6:25pm Fri 6 May 11
As for Walters claims about me damaging the party image, I would just point out that UKIP Swindon has had far more media coverage in these elections than any other UKIP area. All generated by me.
Go back to being a pretend scientist Walter, and by the way it's the 6th, I thought your alter-ego was supposed to have had me arrested today.
Robfm
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6:30pm Fri 6 May 11
Is it any wonder our democracy is shall we say, up the creek.
Da Mellon
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6:32pm Fri 6 May 11
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sounds like an autocratic system to me with a hint of hypocrisy....and youve come up against me before
Robfm
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6:42pm Fri 6 May 11
' sounds like an autocratic system to me with a hint of hypocrisy....and youve come up against me before'
Please explain?. Oh I forgot that may reveal who you are.
molly60
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6:54pm Fri 6 May 11
Robfm wrote:Which definition of democracy are we talking about? Last time I checked there were more than twelve .
molly60, sadly not going in the direction of representative democracy. Oddly in Scotland the Scottish Parliament elections under STV have ensured an SNP Government and yet it seems they are voting no to the same system for the whole of the UK, go figure.
Is it any wonder our democracy is shall we say, up the creek.
Da Mellon
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6:54pm Fri 6 May 11
as for the autocratic response, you say democratic process in campaigning but you have no control what your campaigning for in the ward which in itself is completely wrong, you fail to understand your own failures and are not fit for council, as for the hypocrisy i refer you to your previous comments
Da Mellon
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7:10pm Fri 6 May 11
itsamess
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8:01pm Fri 6 May 11
Why would anyone want you arrested?
Robfm
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12:16am Sat 7 May 11
Punctured bicycle on a hillside
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12:23am Sat 7 May 11
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And it got you nowhere - what does that tell you Rob?
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Stick to being a barman old fella.
Scrumping
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3:59am Sat 7 May 11
Robfm wrote:And you had far more coverage than any other party and you got far less votes. What does that tell you Robbo? It should tell you that you are an obtuse liar who the majority of people are disgusted at .... disgusted at you and your ragtag bunch of racists foul politics. Now disappear into the shadows before someone helps you!
Whoever Da Mellon is, clearly knows nothing about how UKIP works, as the local Chairman I do not decide campaigning policy. We have a dedicated election planning sub-committee. The idea is about making democratic, as opposed to the autocratic decisions, as the main parties do.
As for Walters claims about me damaging the party image, I would just point out that UKIP Swindon has had far more media coverage in these elections than any other UKIP area. All generated by me.
Go back to being a pretend scientist Walter, and by the way it's the 6th, I thought your alter-ego was supposed to have had me arrested today.
Robfm
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9:19am Sat 7 May 11
Tim Newroman
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10:44am Sat 7 May 11
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It's a shame these comments ignore the surprisingly good news for the government and have instead descended into the usual mudslinging between two men who really should be old and ugly enough to know far better.
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Look, nobody cares about UKIP, they're a miserable joke and a non-runner. Equally nobody cares about petty personal squabbles. Just drop it, unless you wish to continue to paint yourselves as rather desperate and pathetic little children.
Robfm
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10:59am Sat 7 May 11
As one commentator said yesterday the AV campaign became about party politics rather than the issue of voting reform and it was the Tories who made it that way.
As for the rest of your post I wish people would comment on the articles and not me, but as this has been going on for well over two years aside from not expressing my view (which I refuse to do) there is not a lot more I can do. The Adver remove posters from time to time but they just re-invent themselves.
Tim Newroman
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1:29pm Sat 7 May 11
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As for AV, I don't think it became a party-based issue, not unless we consider that the Tories are massively more popular than Labour at the moment. Even their eye-brow raisingly good results in the current government trackers don't put them as that much more popular than Labour.
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The electorate is smart, they realised that the version of AV they were offered would not work well in this country. It was a good result and means that electoral reform can still occur in the UK, we just need to be offered a more suitable system.
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But what with Tory gains, nationally, at local Council level, the re-drawing of constituency boundaries at national level to remove inherent Labour advantage AND the 'No' to AV vote, Mr Cameron must certainly be feeling a lot happier this weekend than Messrs Clegg, Cable, Miliband and Balls must be.
Robfm
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6:00pm Sat 7 May 11
But the people have decided that is Democracy.
Da Mellon
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6:05pm Sat 7 May 11
Robfm
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6:08pm Sat 7 May 11
Scrumping
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8:45pm Sat 7 May 11
Da Mellon wrote:www.tiny.cc/3jw6w take a look at the diatribe from Robbo at 12:10pm Thu 18 Feb 10. You will see that he was using an alt login to steer the debate. Not the sort of integrity you would expect from a potential councillor. What is worse rather than simply admitting he was being devious and under-hand, then apologising he continues to deny he did wrong.
whats the daniel10 affair?
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I do hope you manage to read this before Monday as he will pester Dave King until this post is removed.
Scrumping
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8:48pm Sat 7 May 11
Robfm wrote:I think folk are making an anecdotal statement and conservatory or arm chair campaign really does sum up the contempt you showed towards the residents of S&NE. Whether you actually have a conservatory or don't matters not.
Oh and just for the record and to put to bed just another stupid jibe which indicates these posters have never been to our pub, we don't have a conservatory.
Robfm
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9:07am Sun 8 May 11
The fact we didn't do better is a matter of regret however one can never account for the logic of voting back in a Councillor who those on the street in the ward disliked.
However as I have said that is democracy.
Phantom Poster
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7:37pm Wed 11 May 11
Robfm wrote:Duh! The "logic" is quite simple. They disliked him, but not as much as they disliked you!
Scrumping as I said before what others say does not necessarily reflect the truth we gave far more attention to S&NE than any other ward, myself included.
The fact we didn't do better is a matter of regret however one can never account for the logic of voting back in a Councillor who those on the street in the ward disliked.
However as I have said that is democracy.
PeeGee says...
7:50am Fri 6 May 11